Canada’s environmental laws were inadequate to begin with. In a 2005 study, a year before the Conservatives took office, Canada ranked 28th out of 30 industrialized countries for environmental performance. Harper just accelerated a miserable trend that was already well-established under Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.

This brings me to the second environmental legacy of the Harper years: … The great irony of the much-reported, politically motivated Canada Revenue Agency assault on environmental charities is that it has made traditionally cautious and low-key individuals and groups very angry. Blatant injustice tends to have that effect on people.

Rick Smith — the executive director of the left-leaning Broadbent Institute — suggests that people and non-government organizations can band together to defeat the Tories.

Sure, I’d like to see it happening. But I’m not so optimistic.

It’s a nice notion to believe bad government empowers public involvement but the turnout at the poles tells a different story.

Are the NGOs still able to inspire with what can be done with positive messages?

Sorry, I don’t see it.

We have been dragged down in the mud of modern politics of division – politics of denial, willfull ignorance, and fear.

Will Stephen Harper’s action — or inaction on the environmental issue — strengthen the environmental movement?